Did AirAsia flight too fly into dead zone?

Bengaluru, Dec 28: Another aircraft has gone off the radar and this time it is the Air Asia flight travelling from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board. It is another reminder of the MH 370 which disappeared off the radar last March with 239 passengers on board.

The missing jet could have well gone missing due to very bad weather as a request for deviation was made, the company had said. However search operations are on and we sincerely hope that all is well.

How does a plane go off the radar?

The missing MH370 continues to be a mystery. There was without a doubt something more than what met the eye and it is clear that the Malaysian authorities were hiding something. It did not appear to be a crash as till date the debris was not found.

When the plane went missing, it was said that it went off the radar. Now how does a plane go off the radar. A plane cannot be spotted only when it flies through a dead zone. A dead zone is when an aircraft is flying 200 kilometres between two radars. For someone to shoot down a plane in a dead zone it is a very difficult task as the precision needs to be that high.

Terror outfits:

A lot was said about the possible involvement of a terror outfit being involved in the MH370 tragedy. However the experts would completely rule that theory out since bringing down an aircraft is seen as a major achievement for terror groups. Had they done so they would have claimed responsibility for the attack almost immediately.

In the case of the MH370 there were a majority of Chinese passengers on board. If the Chinese were the targets then there were only two possibilities- one the Tibetans and second the Uighurs. Now it is highly unlikely that the Tibetans would have struck as they do not believe such attacks at all. Had it been the Uighurs they would have been quick to claim responsibility.

How difficult are search operations?

If an aircraft falls into the ocean then it is almost an impossible task to retrieve it. Even if one knows the exact location it becomes very difficult to track and trace even a small bit of debris. Many would believe that the MH370 crashed into the ocean and in the absence of any information they have just not been able to retrieve it.

Take the June 2009 incident in which 228 people travelling between Rio de Janerio and Paris on the Airbus A 330 belonging to Air France died after the aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. During the search operations there was specific information about where the aircraft had crashed. It took the search and rescue team six day to retrieve the first piece of debris. By the time the entire wreckage was retrieved it was nine months.

This gives a fair idea of how difficult it is to retrieve an aircraft which has crashed into the ocean. In the case of the Airbus A330 it still took nine long months and this was despite having all the details about the exact location in which the aircraft had crashed.

Even if there is some information that the aircraft in a 200 kilometre radius a search operation is possible. However what does do when they do not even know where to commence their search operation as in the case of the MH370. In the case of the MH370 there was absolutely no information and hence it is said that it will always remain a mystery.